MYSTERY
THIEF IN A RUT
Case of the
It was on a Saturday in April, 1934,
that the first call came to the Auto
Recovery Bureau at Detroit police
headquarters. After identifying her
self and giving an address on Maple
wood Avenue, the woman said:
'There's a black car parked in
front of my house, and I think it's
a stolen one."
A squad was dispatched to Maple
wood Avenue, where detectives
found a 1933 black Buick sedan that
had been reported stolen on Wednes
day evening. The woman told police .
she had first noticed the car there
on Thursday.
It was -returned to its owner, who
said it was undamaged and that
nothing was missing. The police de
cided it had been stolen by a teen
ager who had gone for a ride, then
abandoned it, the most common form
of auto theft
Exactly a week later, the same
woman phoned the police. "That
black car is in front of my house
again," she reported.
Skeptical, police called the owner
of the Buick. No, he said, his car
had not been stolen again.
But when detectives arrived on
Maplewood Avenue, they found an
other 1933 black Buick sedan. It was
the same model as the first and.
looked very much like it. It had been
in front of the woman's home since
Thursday, and it, too, had been re
ported stolen on Wednesday evening. .
Was this the work of a teen-ager,
possibly the same one? Police found
no immediate answer. Nor were they
prepared for what happened next.
For three consecutive weeks, a
stolen 1933 black Buick sedan ap
peared on Thursday morning in ap
proximately the same location, and
a report was made to them by the
same woman.
Technicians found fingerprints on
the cars, but they matched none on
file at headquarters. Detectives ques
tioned other residents of the block in
an effort to determine what time the
car had been abandoned. Many had
noticed the Buick, but nobody had
seen it being driven or parked.
From the testimony of a dozen
people who remembered it, detec
tives learned it hadn't been there .
before midnight Wednesday, but
must have been abandoned during
the early hours of Thursday.
On the sixth Wednesday night, de
tectives waited impatiently in the
shadows. It was well after midnight
when a 1933 black Buick sedan drew
up to the curb and stopped. A young
man slid from behind the wheel and
walked directly into the arms of the
waiting officers.
At headquarters, he confessed
stealing six different 1933 black
Buick sedans, and gave this ex-t
planation to the officers:
He had met a beautiful girl who
consented to a date after he had
described his 1933 black Buick sedan.
Actually, the car belonged to his
uncle, who usually let him use it. But
on the Wednesday he had his first
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